Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Anemia
My family doctor says it isn't lack of dietary iron. Apparently one of the blood tests measures size of red blood cells and this tells them whether there is enough dietary iron or not. It might be lack of B12 or half a dozen other causes (most of which are unlikely for me: chemotherapy; radiation therapy; various cancers; excessive drinking; zinc poisoning). He therefore drew six tubes of blood to test various possible causes. In the meantime, the B12 supplement has essentially no overdose risk.
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Eat greens too. Folic acid can be short and cause anemia. See this a lot in my alcoholic patients, but they also have lots of other things going on. We give them massive b-vitamin supplements, in the worst cases via IV.
ReplyDeleteAre your kidneys good? Poor kidney function also causes anemia.
Check your stools. If they are black (or bright red!!), it could be a GI bleed. Did the doc ask for a stool sample?
Tom: No peculiar colored stools. My doctor asked that question. Dark green leafy vegetables are a blood thickener problem. Any other easy sources of folic acid?
ReplyDeleteCoumadin? With your history we wouldn't want to screw with the blood thinner!
ReplyDeleteFolic acid is added to a lot of cereal and bread products, has been for decades. Also, most B-complex vitamin pills will have plenty.
Tom: Last night I took 200% of the folic acid RDA by vitamin pill.
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